Yesterday's Men

by pessimist

It has taken a long time, and far too much spilled blood, but the final days in the Reign of King George I of Crawford are upon us.

Anne Gearan covers foreign affairs and diplomacy in Washington, and wrote for the AP (posted by Yahoo) that when they appeared together to address the issue of the failed Crusade For Iraqi Crude, Bush and Blair "looked less like cheerleaders for the latest milestone of democratic political progress in Iraq and more like world-weary leaders who had met their match."

Both men were euphoric in victory when their military juggernaut dethroned Saddam Hussein. Subdued and understated, the two politicians most responsible for beginning a war now highly unpopular with both their publics acknowledged sour notes during a news conference at the White House on Thursday night, possibly their last joint appearance. [B]oth leaders talked remorsefully about mistakes made.

Both politicians know that success in Iraq, and a graceful exit, depend on factors that are almost entirely outside their control said Jonathan Clarke, a former British diplomat now at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington.

"Yesterday's men is the phrase that occurred to me," Clarke said.

But as William Shakespeare wrote about Julius Caesar, "The evil men do lives after them." Bush and Blair may well be 'Yesterday's men', but the damage they have done to world peace and international political and economic stability is only beginning to make itself known. The evil they have done will live after them a long time, and history will not be kind.

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